As we moved away from South America (and already missing it!) to Southeast Asia, we wanted to take a little time to update our blog and give you other useful information. As nature lovers, we are realized that South America is amazing for hiking and doing outdoor activities, as it has a vast and diverse landscape of mountains, volcanos with snowy summits, but also jungle and a lot of wildlife. If you’re in a tight budget, doing a trekking can become quite expensive (for our Salkantay trek we spend 170 USD each!) so we listed 4 amazing hikes you can do on your own and completely for free!

We enjoyed all of them, so the list in random order.

1. Vale del Cocora – Salento – Colombia

From plaza in the center of the village, you can pay around 1 USD (3.600 COP) for a jeep to take you to the beginning of the trail, but this is not mandatory, you can just walk there – it takes around 1 hour. There is a humming-bird sanctuary where you can see this beautiful birds so close that you will hear their wings flap! You will pay around 1,5 USD (5.000 COP) but get a big cup of coffee and some cheese (this money helps with the conservation of the park).

Lovely humming-bird – um lindo beija flor.

Also, the Cocora valley is known by its huge palm trees and you can start or end here your trek. There are around 7 suspended bridges in a part with jungle so dense, that you will feel in a Indiana Jones movie!

Bring food and water as there is no where place to buy during the trek. If in the raining season (May-April) bring the rain poncho and raining boots or waterproof boots. You’ll totally love Salento too, a town in the middle of the coffee region, Quindio.

Difficulty: easy – medium.Duration: 5 hours.

Dificuldade: fácil – médio.

Duração: 5 horas.

2. Quilotoa crater trail – Quilotoa – Ecuador

Quilotoa is a crater of volcano with an amazing green lagoon that reflects the sky, in the bright days of sun. The crater trailis a loop trek that goes around the crater.

It is advised to do it in the counter-clockwise direction because the hardest part will be in the beginning, when you still have a lots of energy. The trail is well signalised but it has a precarious structure, be sure to bring with you water and food. Please mind that you will be in 3800 meters above sea level so it will be cold, even with sunshine weather. You can choose to go down to the lagoon instead, it takes 1 hour to go down and 3 hours to go up again.

El Chalten is considered the best hiking spot in South America and we can totally agree on that! Besides being the free entry, this part of the Parque de los Glaciares del Sur, there are so many treks to choose from that it can be hard to choose just one.

This classic trek can be done in 1 day or 2 days (staying for free in the camping site in the national park), we did it as a one day trekking, it’s doable and you get to have a nice warm shower after. If you’re doing 2 days, you can wake up really early and see the sunrise in the mirador, with the snow and the peaks, seems a great way to start a day. The last km is the hardest. Bringing food is essential but water can be easily be found in the creeks through the trail.

Difficulty: Easy until last km – stepy for around 1 hour.Duration: 7 hours (one day trek).

This trail is quite known by locals and brazilian explorers but not by many tourists. The trail stars in beach Lagoinha and ends in beach Fortaleza or the other way around.You can wild camp in one of the beaches or you can do it in a day trek. As it goes through the jungle (Mata Atlântica ecosystem) it will be good to bring repellent and boots (mind there are snakes around the jungle), bring water (you can buy along the way but it will be expensive) and some food. There are places to eat in the beaches.

Sea in Ubatuba – mar de Ubatuba.

The sea here is an amazing shade of blue and all of the 7 beaches are in shape of a bay, with almost no waves. If you do it in the weekdays there will be fewer people, for sure. We did it on a holiday weekend and it was still pretty amazing.

How to get there: take a bus from Ubatuba or Maresias and ask around to the entrance of the trail, the locals will know it!

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The backpacker couple

Hello! We're Agata & André, a Portuguese girl and a Brazilian boy that love to travel, even on a small budget. We travelled through Europe, South America and Southeast Asia! We are currently living in Lisbon :)